The history and future of projects as a transition innovation: Towards a sustainable project management framework

Abstract

AbstractProject management practices have evolved as the discipline grew from managing defence and engineering projects to delivering information systems, supporting organizational transformation, and managing megaprojects supporting national infrastructure needs. Thus, from starting as a tactical tool, project management grew to deliver organizational and national strategies. The next challenge for project management is to support the achievement of sustainable development goals to tackle societal challenges. How can it do this? In this article, we chart a way forward for project management to contribute to global sustainability by tracing the history of projects from prehistoric times to the 21st. We outline the development using the lens of socio‐technical transitions to analyse technological niches developed to advance the field, and socio‐technical regimes that have supported the development of project management to adopt these technological niches to meet changes that appear at the landscape level. By analysing the history of projects and project management, we argue that the discipline has continuously evolved as a transition innovation that can meet the challenges posed by sustainable development. However, further investigation is required. A sustainable development framework has been proposed in this article to enable project management researchers and managers to achieve this transition.